Question

Knowling goes on to say about fear that once people know change is coming, 'you can cut it with a knife'. He implies this is normal as well, which I too agree. He then says that his way of 'dealing with it' is to tell people that they need to deal with the fear and not let it immobilize them into doing nothing. Again I agree with this statement, but I am not fully supportive of the notion that you 'cannot un-fear an organization'(Knowling, 1997), as I think it is the ethical responsibility of leaders to attempt to do just that. Regardless of the quadrant that a company sits, it is not the responsibility of the employees of that company to move across quadrant and even more so it is not the employees fault for which quadrant the company is in to begin with. Employees only have so much influence over the culture of a business but in the end the results of a business are the by-product of the management that allowed them to develop to begin with. As such it is the responsibility of the top leadership and business owners on where the company is currently sitting. If this were not the case then it change would be something that was brought from the bottom up and it would be the employees deciding which tools to use and instilling fear towards their respective bosses. In the end they are not the one with the power and as such need to be treated differently. Just like the police example I gave above, with great power comes great responsibility. So use the tools that you feel are appropriate including fear if required, but you should always be obligated to justify you actions as when you carry authority over someone else life/success/happiness, humanity and ethics need to take the front seat not the back.

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Answer 1

I completely agree with the fact the great power comes with great responsibility . And as the organization functions in top to bottom approach by top management and not in bottom to top by employees. So it is certainly the duty of the top management to ensure that change is implemented in a certain manner. In my opinion it is complete acceptable that when ever we carry authority on someone else life /success/happiness humanity and ethics need to take the front the seat not the back. As the person on whom management has authority is also a human being and should be treated in a proper way. While implementing the changes or in the application of any kind of authority on employment the management should not forget about the ethics and humanity. Fear is an important tool but it should not cross the line and should always be within the boundaries of ethics . It is ethical responsibility of the leader to lead and un-fear the organization which is mot an impossible task